Uzbekistan, Turkey to facilitate mutual access of products to their markets 

Tashkent hosted the 6th meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade-economic cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Republic of Turkey, co-chaired by the Uzbek side – Deputy PM – Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov, from the Turkish side – Vice President Fuat Oktay.

The heads of delegations emphasized the relevance of further joint work to promote joint projects and initiatives, as well as intensify efforts to identify new areas of cooperation, the MIFT press service reported.

During the meeting, specific agreements were reached on strengthening investment, trade-economic, transport-transit and cultural-humanitarian ties between the two states.

In particular, it is expected that in the near future the parties will complete work on the approval of the draft Agreement on Preferential Trade in order to sign it during the next meeting of the Strategic Cooperation Council, scheduled to be held this year.

The parties will also take a number of practical measures to eliminate barriers in mutual trade in relation to certain commodity items and develop mechanisms to facilitate mutual access of Uzbek and Turkish products to the markets of the two countries.

Efforts will be united to develop proposals aimed at increasing the congestion of the transport corridor “China – Central Asia – Caucasus – Europe”, which will form additional preconditions for the development of mutual trade and increase the transit potential of the region.

The parties also agreed to expedite the resolution of the issue of joining the Turkish State Railways Corporation to the agreement “On the provision of discounts on transit tariffs” signed by the railway organizations of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

On the sidelines of the meeting, several agreements on cooperation in the field of technical regulation, standardization, conformity assessment, accreditation and metrology, on cooperation in the field of fishing and on the construction of a 240 MW combined-cycle power plant in the Syrdarya region, as well as on the purchase of electricity by JSC National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan were signed.